


Cool! Two Zoros!

by grainjew



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Luffy Being Luffy, Time Travel, Zoro being Zoro, also luffy is functionally incomprehensible to an outsider thats just how it goes, he is very confused, jinbe being Done, roronoa “emo loner” zoro meets roronoa “model of devotion” zoro, they are both disasters.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 04:52:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13896675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grainjew/pseuds/grainjew
Summary: Roronoa Zoro, sixteen years old and Definitely Not, In Any Sense, Lost, has a chance encounter with the crew of the Thousand Sunny as it makes its way through the New World. Shenanigans, inevitably, ensue.





	Cool! Two Zoros!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fallingwish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingwish/gifts).



Roronoa Zoro, sixteen years old and ~~lost~~  on a journey to become the greatest swordsman in the world so that his name would resound to the heavens, was bored.

He floated aimlessly on a dinghy he’d picked up with some of the leftover money from his latest bounty, tossing an empty bottle from hand to hand as he contemplated what to do next. He’d been heading to one of the Marine bases to check up on the active bounties, but apparently the directions that bastard from the bar last island had given him were faulty, so now (through no fault of his own) he was stuck in the middle of the open ocean. And he was almost out of alcohol. Ugh.

And then a ship appeared out of nowhere.

It shimmered into existence like a mirage, medium-sized and almost too colorful to be real. Zoro blinked, and then blinked again, and then pinched himself. The ship was still there in all its double-masted, tree-bearing, pirate-mark-flying, cheerfully-colored glory. He pinched himself again, just to be sure. It did not stop existing.

And then he narrowed his eyes at the flag’s distinctive behatted skull-and-crossbones. Well, wasn’t that a stroke of luck! He didn’t recognize the mark, but he hadn’t checked in on active bounties in awhile, hence his intended destination. Maybe they could point his way after he took their captain’s head. Hopefully, he’d even get a good fight out of it.

Resolved, he picked up the oars and rowed himself towards the giant 1 emblazoned on the side of the ship.

As he approached, a small collection of figures gathered at the side railing to observe him. He could make out in increasing clarity a large robot-looking thing, a… raccoon with antlers?, a man with an exceptionally long nose, a woman with bright orange hair and a tattoo on her shoulder, and another man with a ridiculous swirly eyebrow. They all stared at him like they couldn’t believe their eyes. What _was_ this, a travelling circus?

“Holy _shit_ ,” said long-nose, as he got in earshot. “Is that—”

“Oi! Mosshead!” shouted swirly-brow. “Get your shitty ass over here!”

“Fuck off!” yelled back a voice. It sounded somehow familiar.

“Seriously, bro, you really wanna be over here right about now,” added the _robot_.

“Ugh, fine,” answered the voice, and with loud, irritated footsteps emerged from the bow of the absurdly cheery ship… well, Zoro. Or someone who looked remarkably like him, except aged up, wearing more traditional clothing, and peppered with scars.

His doppelganger froze, mouth open in shock. Zoro figured he was making the exact same expression.

“Zoro…” said the raccoon. (It could talk?) “Is that…?”

“He’s got Wado Ichimonji,” said the two of them at the same time, pointing at each other. Zoro flinched. That was _weird_.

“That’s definitely me,” added Zoro’s older counterpart. “I remember that shirt, I wore it for like half a year straight.”

Silence.

“It appears that either we or your younger counterpart have time-travelled,” said a dark-haired woman Zoro had somehow not noticed.

Zoro turned incredulous eyes on her. So did the people on board the ship.

“Robin, are you _sure_?” squeaked the raccoon.

“There is no other explanation that makes as much sense,” said the woman serenely.

The tattooed woman looked halfway to screaming in panic but then glanced at something on her wrist and frowned. “We’re in one of the Blues, definitely. The log pose isn’t working; if I’m correct, all three needles are pointing north and not one of them is shaking. And I’m _always_ correct.”

“Guess this is just what happens when we let Mosshead steer,” said swirly-brow, sounding smug. “He gets us so lost we end up in the past.”

“You don’t ‘let’ me do anything, shit-cook.” Zoro’s older counterpart whipped his gaze around to glare at the other man, and Zoro felt himself follow suit. He didn’t get lost! Ever!

“You let him do _what_?” The tattooed woman looked abruptly outraged. "Zoro!" she screeched. "This is why you're not allowed near the wheel!"

Zoro's older counterpart muttered something under his breath. It didn't sound complimentary.

To Zoro's shock, the woman _punched_ his older counterpart, and, except for a snarl, his counterpart just took the abuse of dignity without retaliation. "We even have a helmsman now! What do you _think_ Jinbe-chan's role on this ship is, getting everyone to go to bed on time?" She tugged at her hair, severely exasperated. “How are we even going to get _back_?”

“I’m sure something will come up,” said the dark-haired woman (Robin?), with enviable levels of composure. “Now, we should probably inform—” A brightly-colored figure streaked into the midst of the people and leaned over the ship’s railing. “—ah, there he is.”

“What’re you guys looking at?” asked the figure, loudly. Now that he wasn’t moving as much, Zoro could make out black hair and a straw hat. “Is that Zoro?” He twisted his head at an almost-unnatural angle to look behind him. Zoro shuddered a little, vaguely creeped out. “Zoro’s there, too, though!” He looked thoughtful, for all of two seconds, then grinned wider than a human mouth should go. “Cool! Two Zoros!”

“Uh, Luffy, we ended up in the past somehow,” said long-nose. “Well, everyone’s pretty sure it’s cause Zoro was steering. That Zoro down there is Zoro from before he met you, I think?”

“Yeah, three years before, about,” confirmed Zoro’s counterpart.

“Oh! Cool!” he said, and then his arm… His arm _extended._ Zoro wasn’t sure if what he was seeing was real until he felt it wrap tightly around his waist like an octopus tentacle around unsuspecting prey, and then he was being pulled through rushing air and slamming harshly into wood.

He blinked, took in the fact that he was now facefirst on the grassy deck of the pirate ship (wait, _grass_?), and scrambled rapidly to his feet in embarrassment. Glancing around showed that nobody, even, uh, Luffy, that was his name, had abnormally long arms. Well, the robot did, but it was a robot and hardly counted.

“What the _fuck_.”

“Luffy!” chorused the others, except for the dark-haired woman who was just smiling. “Be nice!”

The tattooed woman rapped Luffy’s head lightly with her knuckles. It flew out to the side more than it should have and then popped back into place with a _snap_. “Sorry about our captain,” she said, glaring at Luffy. “He’s very inconsiderate of guests.”

Zoro turned to stare at his older counterpart, who, Zoro was annoyed to note, stood several inches taller than him. “You’re — I’m a pirate in the future,” he said, closer to a statement than a question.

“Yep.” His counterpart smirked. “Got a problem with it?”

Zoro had several problems, actually, but one took precedence. “You’re a pirate and you’re not the captain,” he said, and hoped some of the disbelief he felt got into his voice.

His older counterpart actually _laughed_. Zoro felt vaguely insulted. “Of course I’m not captain. We already have a captain, why would I be captain?”

Zoro felt a sudden pang of empathy for everyone who had ever tried to talk to him. He pointed at Luffy, who was grinning widely and looked rather like an idiot. “You’re a pirate, and _he’s_ your captain.”

His counterpart’s eyes turned cold, suddenly. He felt the heavy gazes of the rest of the motley group — except, notably, Luffy, who looked as carefree as the breeze — come to rest on him and realized abruptly that somehow, they had been so friendly and weird that he had let his guard down and forgotten the reality of the fact that they _were_ pirates. Including his future self.

“I’m a pirate, and he’s my captain,” repeated Zoro’s older counterpart, serious as a promise. “I swore my life and swords to him, and I will fulfill my dream at his side or not at all.” His face softened a little, blankened like he was looking past Zoro completely to events he knew nothing of. “You’ll see how it is, in time.”

“Uh,” said Zoro, looking back and forth between his counterpart and Luffy and trying to pinpoint anything worth following there. “Can’t see it.”

Luffy just laughed, _shishishi_ , like Zoro’s dismissal hadn’t even touched him. “Zoro’s just confused, is all!”

Immediately, the air lightened, the crew stopping their glaring at the implicit command. Zoro was reluctantly impressed.

“Um!” said the raccoon. “I'm gonna go tell everyone else what's happening!”

Without waiting for an answer, he scurried off as the rest of the pirates shouted out names and locations.

An _aquarium bar?_ _Seriously?_ What _was_ this, a luxury cruise ship?

“You’re a bounty hunter,” said Zoro’s counterpart, drawing Zoro’s attention back to him.

“I’ve never called myself a bounty hunter and you know it,” snapped Zoro back. Just because it was the easiest way to make money didn’t mean it was his _job_!

“I call it like I see it,” said his older counterpart, smirking. “It’s something you learn to do as a pirate. Anyways, _Pirate Hunter_ , were you planning on taking our heads?”

“Well, yeah,” said Zoro, ignoring the Pirate Hunter comment for now. Instead, he grinned and adjusted his stance on the lawn. (Seriously, what kind of pirate ship had a _lawn_?) “Afraid?”

“We don’t even have bounties this far back,” complained the tattooed woman. "Why are you… ugh. Why do I even bother with you idiots?”

Zoro ignored her, watching instead as his counterpart’s smirk widened into a completed version of the bloodthirsty smile he would never admit to having spent hours perfecting. “Why would I be afraid?” he asked, shrugging off the shoulders of his robe to expose a chest peppered with scars. “I could beat you with Wado’s sheath. You’re not even worth my time.”

“As if.” Zoro eyed the massive scar that stretched proudly across his counterpart's chest. Everything he knew told him that it should have been fatal.

The man seemed to notice his gaze, and grinned. "Got my ass kicked by Mihawk," he said fondly, running his fingers along the length of it.

“You didn’t beat him?” Zoro couldn’t quite keep a contemptuous edge out of his voice. _Why are you alive, then? Did you beg or something?_

“I’m going to,” returned Zoro’s counterpart steadily. “Don’t talk like you’re better than me. Three years from now he’ll beat your ass with a butter knife and you’ll learn how big the world really is.”

“I can’t believe you,” said Zoro, scornful. “What about Kuina?”

Zoro’s counterpart put a hand on Wado Ichimonji and looked ready to snap back an answer, but he was interrupted by a blur of red.

“Hey, Zoro,” said Luffy, suddenly close, and Zoro’s counterpart looked over at him almost before he was done speaking, all of the tension evaporating from his posture. “You said this you was from three years before you joined my crew, right?”

“Yeah,” said Zoro’s counterpart. “What is it?”

Luffy didn't answer his question. Instead he turned his stare on Zoro, oddly intense. Zoro controlled the urge to take a step back. “What month is it?”

What kind of question was _that_? Still, Luffy was still staring at him like a predator, so Zoro said, “Uh, January? Maybe February. Dunno, don't get the paper much. Why?”

“Cause Ace just turned seventeen!” said Luffy, mouth stretching into a too-wide grin. As though Zoro knew who this “Ace” was. “Which means he just set out from Windmill! Which means we have to go visit him!” He spun around, throwing his arms out wide, and shouted, “Everyone, we’re going to go find Ace and say hi!”

Silence fell over the ship, heavy and stifling. Zoro got the feeling he was missing something important.

“Luffy…” said swirly-brow.

“Are you sure?” asked the tattooed woman, more gently than she had said anything so far.

“Yeah,” said Luffy, head lowered so that the brim of his hat shaded his eyes. There was something pained in his voice. “I want… I want to see him.”

“This will almost certainly have temporal consequences,” warned the dark-haired woman. “But if it's your desire, I won't object.”

“Whatever you like, Captain,” said Zoro’s counterpart equanimously.

Zoro blinked at him, and then wondered if he’d heard correctly. Especially the deference in his counterpart’s voice. That was just… unnatural.

“Trying to figure out what happened?” asked a gruff voice from behind him. Zoro turned around to see who had spoken.

His first impression was _tall._ His second was _blue_.

“Jinbe,” said the man, answering Zoro's unspoken question. “Helmsman.”

Zoro nodded in greeting, somewhat dazed by how small he was in comparison to Jinbe. “Zoro, but you knew that.”

“I do tend to keep an eye on what's happening, although my role doesn't particularly require it anymore,” said Jinbe. “Force of habit, and all that.”

“Oh?” Zoro wasn't really interested, but hopefully Jinbe would tell him something that would make his future counterpart's actions make any sense at all.

“I was captain of the Sun Pirates for ten years before Luffy invited me to sail with him, eight of those years as a Warlord,” explained Jinbe placidly. “Some habits are difficult to drop, even as a simple crewmember.”

Zoro stared, except he attempted to do it surreptitiously. “And you gave all that up to join _him_?”

“He earned my respect,” said Jinbe simply, as though that explained everything. Maybe it did, to him, but not to Zoro.

“But… I— we have a dream,” said Zoro, desperately. “How could I just…”

“I determined that my own dream would be more effectively achieved if I sailed with Luffy. I can't speak for your future self, but I assume he feels similarly.” The corners of Jinbe's mouth curved up, and he glanced over at Luffy, who was being yelled at by the tattooed woman to no effect.

“But—”

“Our captain has great respect for dreams, Zoro-san. He will be King of the Pirates, after all. Besides,” and now Jinbe's voice sounded wry, “I know how much you like fighting people, and with Luffy's troublesome little habit of declaring war on the most powerful entities in the world at any provocation, there is certainly no shortage of people for you to challenge.”

Zoro sighed. “Well, at least there's that.”

He looked around again at the too-colorful ship and its too-colorful people, the grass deck and brightly-painted wood more like something out of a children's book than government-issued bounty posters, Zoro's older counterpart and Luffy alternately staring him down like predators and being slapped around by the tattooed woman who he still had not been introduced to, the absolute core of respect his counterpart and the rest of the pirates seemed to inexplicably have for their unimpressive captain.

And then Luffy was in his face again, staring him down again except that his gaze was somehow gentler this time. Since when were people _gentle_ to him?

“What do you _want_?” Zoro asked finally, fed up Luffy’s physical proximity and the softness in his face. If this went on any longer, Zoro was shoving him.

“I dunno if this is gonna mess up the past or whatever,” said Luffy, still looking at him with… was that _love_? Zoro growled under his breath. “Nami’d be pretty annoyed if it did, but Zoro's Zoro, no matter what, so it doesn't matter, cause Zoro will still be Zoro.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” responded Zoro, finally pushing Luffy away from him in outrage.

Luffy just grinned. “It means Zoro’s Zoro, even if he’s confused!” He poked Zoro in the forehead. “You’ll see eventually, don’t worry!”

And then before Zoro could respond to the abuse of his dignity, Luffy was off and running to stand at the head of the ship.

“Nami!” he shouted, throwing his arms wide in delight, “set a course for Dawn Island, we’re going to visit Ace!”

  
Three years later, tied to a post in Shells Town, he caught sight of an eerily-familiar straw hat peeking over the top of the wall and his only thought was: _Well, shit_.

**Author's Note:**

> zoro, dont be mean to your past self


End file.
